Applied Research Funding Grant: NSERC

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Sharing the fruits of research: studying the state of the apple industry in the Okanagan

The amount of land in the Okanagan Valley dedicated to growing apples dropped by 35 per cent between 2001 and 2011 — a shift that led to substantial changes in the industry, with broad repercussions for processing and distribution, and inspired two Okanagan College School of Business professors, Lee Cartier and Svan Lembke, to examine the situation and the new opportunities it has given rise to.

Their work looked in particular at the links among “clusters” — the interconnected businesses, suppliers and other organizations in a geographic area that are all involved in the same industry. Cartier and Lembke found that focusing on common interests and encouraging groups in the cluster to share knowledge benefits everyone involved. At a cluster-wide workshop, the researchers also revealed opportunities to improve that had been missed and recommended adopting cluster-wide quality standards, developing new types of apples, improving production technologies and doing better marketing.

Two students participated in the project. One analyzed apple packing and sales data and did a trend analysis of it. The other summarized data from 17 in-depth interview, summarizing what she had learned from them. Working on this research project provided the students with a new understanding of how companies use research to inform their business practices.

The researchers’ recommendations on the best ways to exploit the collective power of the Okanagan apple cluster were discussed during a stakeholder workshop. The research showed the local cooperative organization, BC Tree Fruits (the largest employer in the cluster), was already enabling smaller firms to share equipment, get field service advice and pool their marketing and sales costs. However, the cooperative overall remained a minor player compared to some of the operations in Washington just the other side of the border and had not been aggressive in positioning products or trying new marketing approaches. After the workshop and armed with the research, the cooperative and other industry stakeholders created a list of actions to improve the performance of the conventional apple industry in the Okanagan.

Industry: Agriculture | Food
Partner(s): BC Tree Fruits
Funded by: College and Community Innovation Program, Engage Grant, NSERC

About Okanagan College

Situated in one of Canada’s most picturesque and dynamic regions, Okanagan College offers more than 130 different programs, and credentials that range from certificates to... Learn more
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A bit of research today keeps the doctor away — from the apples

Apples, the fruit that famously keeps the doctor away, are getting some help to keep away unwanted visitors themselves. Ontario’s apple trees are facing damage from a new pest – the apple leaf curling midge. The galls (bumps that appear on leaves) produced by the midges can interfere with the normal growth and development of the terminal shoots of young apple trees, which delays or stunts their structural development.

It’s a particular problem in Durham Region, where the amount of land dedicated to growing apples has doubled in the last five years, because young trees are particularly affected, but apple growers across Ontario are struggling with the midges.

In this collaborative project, the Ontario Apple Growers Association approached Durham College for help finding a way to manage apple leaf curling midges. The first step was to select three apple orchards where data could be collected for a degree-day model (which establishes the rate of the midges’ growth, based on temperature). The researchers use that information for predicting and managing the midges’ development.

The researchers also identified biological control agents for the midges in the orchards and evaluated what impact spraying for midges might have on their survivability.

The project team developed two techniques to research the leaf-curling midges in the lab — one for studying the emergence of adult midges from pupa under different temperatures and the other for looking at the transfer of eggs from field samples to potted trees in the lab, to determine how midges successfully establish themselves on new trees.

The field data showed there are four adult “flights” over the summer and a partial flight in the fall. Egg counts increased very soon after each peak adult flight in May, late June, late July and late August. This is crucial information for effective use of insecticides to control the midges.

Two students from Durham College’s Food and Farming program completed the project in six months, collecting data from the three orchards and tabulating and analyzing it for predictions. Using various concepts, tools and techniques they had learned in the classroom to manage and analyze models for pest management gave the students an opportunity to apply their knowledge in a real-world, collaborative project.

All the 235 members of the Ontario Apple Growers Association will adopt management techniques from this project.

Industry: Agriculture | Food
Funded by: College and Community Innovation Program, Engage Grant, NSERC

About Durham College

At Durham College, the student experience comes first. With campuses in Oshawa and Whitby, Ont. along with a learning site in Pickering, the college offers... Learn more
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A mobile platform to keep patients safely in one place — home

When something goes wrong and patients have to return to hospital for the same problem in the month after they’ve been discharged, it takes a toll both on the individual and the health system. According to the Canadian Institute for Health Information, hospital readmissions cost the healthcare system as much as $1.8 billion per year.

It’s estimated, however, that almost 60 per cent of those readmissions could be avoided if those who were most likely to have to return to hospital could be identified and given better care before and after discharge. Older people, those with multiple health problems, those admitted the first time through the emergency department, and men are all more likely to be readmitted within 30 days.

It’s to help such vulnerable patients that ForaHealthyMe.com, a web and mobile virtual care tele-health system, was developed. ForaHealthyMe.com supports pre-operative consultations and post-hospitalization follow-ups for chronically ill and acute-care patients.

The company recently collaborated with Durham College to design and develop a framework to include video conferencing in its platform. It also worked with the college on a tool to help patients manage their chronic conditions at home, with the hospital monitoring them and providing education, consultation and counselling.

The project, which was completed in eight months, involved two computer programming students, who used their skills in HTML, CSS, JavaScript, SQL and data management and — with the integration of Adobe Connect — also experienced a framework that was new to them. Working on this project required the students to learn and expand their skill sets and enhanced their problem-solving skills.

This project considerably expanded the range of services ForaHealthyMe.com offers. The mobile site is live and helping health-care institutions improve the quality of their care and reduce readmissions while enabling patients to do better managing their conditions at home.

Partner(s): ForaHealthyMe Inc.
Funded by: College and Community Innovation Program, Engage Grant, NSERC

About Durham College

At Durham College, the student experience comes first. With campuses in Oshawa and Whitby, Ont. along with a learning site in Pickering, the college offers... Learn more
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Bridging the gap between parking management and technology

Drivers with smart cars and smart phones are looking for smarter parking spots, and Precise ParkLink is working to meet that demand. Precise ParkLink is a North York, Ontario-based company involved in all aspects of the parking business, from building parking lots to providing equipment and attendants for them, to managing the revenue they generate.

Having recognized that as the public becomes more tech savvy and dependant on its mobile phones, its expectation for a different way to pay for parking would grow, Precise ParkLink developed a web-based portal called i PASS, designed to streamline the process.

Precise ParkLink then approached Durham College to develop a new multi-platform software system by upgrading its existing system and adding many capabilities to improve the technical infrastructure and enhance the end-user experience.

Durham College worked with Precise ParkLink to develop iPass-X, an iOS app. Combined with a developed Web API, the app creates a secure login portal for the data infrastructure in the company’s control centre. It allows clients to register, update and maintain their personal and parking profiles, view past transactions, and find out about new parking services. The user-friendly design conforms to industry standards and Apple’s application requirements.

Two students from the Computer Programmer Analyst program developed the iOS application, completing the project in nine months. Through the project, they advanced their skills in planning and constructing a structured outline for mobile apps for both iOS and Android.

“The students that we have worked with provide a depth of knowledge to keep the project on track, both in timing and budget. It is refreshing to connect with our future leaders,” the company said in a statement.

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Partner(s): Precise ParkLink
Funded by: College and Community Innovation Program, Engage Grant, NSERC

About Durham College

At Durham College, the student experience comes first. With campuses in Oshawa and Whitby, Ont. along with a learning site in Pickering, the college offers... Learn more
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A barren patch of ground becomes a place to grow knowledge

Exposed soil — whether it’s left unprotected by farming, construction or industrial activity — has an increased risk of eroding. The environmental impact of erosion can include loss of farmland, sedimentation of waterways, reduced air quality, and, in severe cases, total abandonment of the land for any productive purpose.

However, there are methods available to temporarily control erosion and minimize its environmental impact during construction and until permanent ground cover can be re-established.

Lakeland College’s Centre for Sustainable Innovation became a candidate for temporary erosion control when a section of its grounds was left bare after a gasifier and solar concentrator were installed. That gave students from the Environmental Conservation and Reclamation program a chance to put what they were learning into practice.

The students were asked to develop an erosion-control strategy for the site. They decided to seed the land with a native seed mix before installing temporary erosion-control matting to protect against erosion while the seeds germinated and grew.

Matting was chosen because the site was small, it’s easy to install and affordable. However, the students took the opportunity to use the site to test and compare three types of matting with different lifespans — wood fibre, which lasts 12 months, straw, which lasts 18-24 months, and coconut fibre which persists for more than 36 months. The question was whether a more persistent mat would influence regrowth on the site; students continue to evaluate and report on that experiment.

Funded by: College and Community Innovation Program, Innovation Enhancement (IE) Grant, NSERC

About Lakeland College

All colleges say they are educating the leaders of tomorrow. At Lakeland College in Alberta, our students are leading today. Students have the opportunity to... Learn more
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Settle down, now: Red River College helps develop an environmentally friendly dust suppressant

There are millions of kilometers of unpaved roads around the world, and the dust kicked up by the vehicles that drive on them is a major contributor to air pollution and levels of dust particles that can cause health and environmental issues. In one effort to combat that, Winnipeg-based Cypher Environmental Ltd. collaborated with faculty and students at Red River College to develop a dust suppressant.

The result was Dust Stop Municipal Blend, a non-corrosive and environmentally friendly alternative to road salts, such as magnesium chloride and calcium chloride. It also offers superior dust control. Municipal Blend incorporates sugars, which compete for water, making it less available to bind with soil molecules while providing some structural support and added road stability. Using the blend allows municipalities and other clients to reduce their overall environmental footprint while controlling dust.

Several students were engaged in the project, acquiring research skills while working alongside faculty and Cypher Environmental researchers.

“In terms of the innovation that we are doing, Cypher has a really great link with Red River College,” said the company’s president, Todd Burns. “We sort of have a deal on a handshake… It’s been phenomenal in terms of our ability to utilize resources that we don’t have in our small facility… It’s a great way to build on our capacity to do research and innovation and grow the business.”

Cypher commercialized Dust Stop immediately, opening a new production line and creating jobs in research, manufacturing and product application — including one filled by a Red River graduate who had worked on the project while at the college.

Industry: Environmental
Funded by: NSERC

About Red River College Polytechnic

Red River College (RRC) is Manitoba’s largest institute of applied learning. The institution is renowned for providing accessible, innovative, applied learning and research in an... Learn more
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Battling Arctic weather to test climate change monitoring equipment

Temperatures are warming in the Arctic much faster than in other parts of the planet, and are having a serious impact on Northern Canadian ways of life, roads, infrastructure and wildlife, to an extent unimagined in the south.

However, it is possible the North is a harbinger of things to come elsewhere and offers an early chance to learn about what climate change does, and perhaps how to mitigate its effects.
Furthermore, the arctic contains huge stores of greenhouse gases; the potential impact of their release is not well understood.

For all those reasons, tracking changes in arctic temperatures and understanding the release of greenhouse gases from tundra regions are key scientific challenges. But collecting data in the Arctic winter is fraught with difficulties including logistics, power, the resilience of equipment and resources in remote areas.

Researchers at Aurora College in Yellowknife worked on a project to test and develop equipment capable of monitoring climate change (specifically carbon dioxide gas, temperature and CO2 soil flux) in the difficult conditions of the Arctic tundra in summer and winter in Inuvik.

The researchers found that testing areas of low and high shrub on the tundra in summer led to significant fluctuation in CO2 in the ground, depending on temperature and vegetation cover; higher shrubs led to more fluctuation. At the Aurora Research Institute in Inuvik in the winter, sampling interval and the snow cover were found to have some impact on measurements. This information will be used to refine equipment for winter use.

Energy and Natural Resource Technician students from the college helped to dig out and make observations on equipment on a very cold (-35C) January day with little available sunlight. It was an opportunity for them to learn about climate change while using field equipment to take field measurements about the impact of snow cover on temperatures under snow pack. The work, made possible by a grant from NSERC, gave students an invaluable opportunity to see firsthand how scientific experiments are conducted.

Aurora College researchers are working with Eosense Inc., an environmental gas monitoring company, on a second stage project for a monitoring network across the Canadian North. This study will be very helpful as Eosense works on further development of winter testing equipment and understanding the issues and challenges of arctic monitoring. It will also enable scientists to more accurately measure the impact of greenhouse gases on climate change.

Industry: Environmental
Partner(s): Eosense Inc.
Funded by: College and Community Innovation Program, Engage Grant, NSERC

About Aurora College

Aurora College has been providing education and training for Northerners for nearly 50 years. From its roots as a technical-vocational school operating out of Fort... Learn more
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A big problem for Little Harbour

In picturesque Little Harbour, Nova Scotia, the livelihoods and pastimes of residents are inextricably linked to the water. More than 650 permanent and seasonal homes, along with six commercial shellfish harvesting areas, lie along Little Harbour’s 31.5 kilometres of shoreline.

But the beauty and prosperity of the area is being undermined by water contamination levels in the harbor, which have been on the rise for some years. The main contaminant is fecal coliform—the bacteria found in feces, and one that can accumulate in shellfish tissue. The presence of fecal coliform and the disease-causing pathogens it can contain has had an impact on both recreational and aquaculture sites around Little Harbour — two of Little Harbour’s six shellfish-growing areas are under restrictions that require costly additional steps to ensure the product is safe for consumption.

It’s believed two factors are to blame for the degradation of Little Harbour’s water — more houses that rely on residential septic fields are being built in the area, and precipitation patterns that are changing. The combination has increased the number of land-based contaminants being flushed into the water.

In August of 2016, Nova Scotia Community College’s Applied Geomatics Research Group partnered with AquaDelights Seafood Inc. and the Aquaculture Association of Nova Scotia to investigate the sources and circulation patterns of the bacterial contamination.

They began by modelling water circulation patterns; results showed that many bacteria particles released into Little Harbour were transported only a few meters from their points of origin. They also discovered the changing tide left low concentrations of contaminates settling along the shorelines and increasing the mean fecal coliform count.

The work included a spatial and statistical analysis of 25 years of water quality data and gathered integrated underwater mapping data and aerial photographs of Little Harbour.

Once the work was completed, the information was shared with the community to influence future actions and encourage remediation of sources of contamination. Most Little Harbour residents were aware of the environmental impact of septic runoff in general, but many believed the tide cycle carried contaminants out to sea, and only learned that was not true from this project. As a result, this research stimulated interest in remediating sources of contamination, and increased local understanding that deteriorating water quality is a hindrance to both environmental and economic health.

Since the conclusion of NSCC’s research in November 2016, the community of Little Harbour has formed the Community Watershed Management Group to spearhead necessary changes and improve water quality in the area.

“The Little Harbour water monitoring project is an important first step in understanding and communicating the need to work with coastal communities to provide the research that will pave the way forward for a brighter future,” said Tom Smith, executive director of the Aquaculture Association of Nova Scotia.

Funded by: College and Community Innovation Program, Engage Grant, NSERC

About Nova Scotia Community College

Nova Scotia Community College (NSCC) is committed to building Nova Scotia’s economy and quality of life through education and innovation, transforming Nova Scotia one learner... Learn more
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A voyage to the bottom of the sea — by sonar

Understanding the ocean, its creatures and possibilities requires understanding where it ends: the ocean floor. But mapping that remote territory is by no means easy. A team from Nova Scotia Community College recently worked with industry partners to evaluate a new approach to imaging the bottom of the sea.

The partners were evaluating R2Sonic multibeam echosounders, an improved method of sonar backscatter imaging that greatly increases the information returned by sonar surveys of the ocean floor. Types of data that can be derived from a multibeam echosounder survey include water depth, which can be used to show the elevation of the sea floor, its reflectivity, or backscatter, which indicates how hard and rough the bottom is, and water column data including the size and strength of reflectors such as bubbles, fish and plankton in the water.

According to project partner R2Sonic, their new technology allows systems to collect backscatter data at multiple frequencies in a single pass, with one vessel and one sonar system — which results in considerable savings in time and cost.

“The capability to image the seafloor simultaneously with widely separated acoustic frequencies will allow for improved classification and characterization capabilities in addition to a host of other applications that are yet to be discovered,” R2Sonic’s website says.

Leading the evaluation was Dr. Jonathan Beaudoin, chief scientist at QPS evaluation services, who worked with Dr. Craig Brown of Nova Scotia Community College and with Mike Brissette of R2Sonic. The trials were conducted in Halifax’s Bedford Basin in August of 2016. During two sets of field trials, QPS provided software support for acquiring and processing data.

This project will save industries (such as fisheries) considerable cost because it will allow them to map larger areas of the ocean floor using fewer resources, including less vessel time. Industry partners have incorporated this technology into their operations and use the results in their decision making processes. Students were hired as research assistants to work on the project.

Partner(s): QPS, R2Sonic
Funded by: Community and College Social Innovation Fund, NSERC

About Nova Scotia Community College

Nova Scotia Community College (NSCC) is committed to building Nova Scotia’s economy and quality of life through education and innovation, transforming Nova Scotia one learner... Learn more
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Aclarus

Easy access to high-quality drinking water can be a challenge for people outside urban areas — and it was to improve that access that Aclarus Ozone Water Systems approached Lambton College in Sarnia for help to test, develop and optimize its ozone water purification system.

Aclarus, based in Peterborough, Ontario, specializes in water purification through the use of ozone technology. Ozone, an inorganic molecule, is extremely efficient at removing bacteria, pesticides, odours, chemicals (and more) from water.

In June of 2015, Aclarus partnered with the Lambton Water Centre at Lambton College on a research project to validate its system’s effectiveness in treating and disinfecting bacterial contamination in drinking water. The project included installation of a remote monitoring system that allows the consumer or Aclarus technical staff to monitor the system from a smart phone or central control station.

Dino Evangelista, coordinator of the Lambton Water Centre, led the research project together with faculty researcher Kevin Ryan. Two students from Lambton’s Instrumentation Control and Engineering Technology program worked with them.

The research project with Lambton allowed Aclarus to improve and validate its technology, while at the same time improving the customer experience by creating remote monitoring options for the system. Due to the success of this project, Aclarus is planning to continue doing research projects with the Lambton Water Centre.

Partner(s): Aclarus
Funded by: Applied Research and Development (ARD) Grant, Community and College Social Innovation Fund, NSERC, Ontario Centres of Excellence

About Lambton College

As a post-secondary leader in education, training and research, Lambton College has experienced tremendous growth in recent years. In addition to a significant rise in... Learn more